12,000 fertilised eggs wait in IVF clinics
(cz) About 12,000 lives-in-waiting are stored at Australia’s fertility clinics. A snapshot of the fertility industry shows 118,709 fertilised eggs are kept frozen at the nation’s 57 fertility clinics, most intended for future use by IVF patients.
With current IVF success rates, the stored embryos could produce an estimated 12,000 babies. More than 30,000 couples have embryos stored across Australia, with nine out of 10 intended for use in current or future IVF cycles.
The study was prepared by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Perinatal Statistics Unit and presented at a Fertility Society of Australia congress in Hobart yesterday. The survey is the first to record the intended uses of stored frozen embryos in Australia, according to lead researcher Elizabeth Sullivan.
“It’s reassuring to see embryos being created are essentially for patient use, and that it is only where there is completion of people’s treatment of families that they available for donation to research or disposal,” Dr Sullivan said. more…
From: »Herald Sun« (Australia)